Fandom: SPORTS NIGHT
Pairings: Assorted, including, but not limited to, Casey/Dana, Dana/Natalie, Natalie/Dan and Dan/Casey
Author on LJ: leiascully
Author Website: No Parenthesis (The X-Files)

Why this must be read: One of the downsides of reading Sports Night fan fiction is that there are very few longer-length fics in the canon. We tend toward quality rather than quantity; most of what we get is beautifully written, but nearly always far too short – ficlets, drabbles and snippets, mostly. This isn't a complaint that can be levelled at And We Are All Together, which is something like 30 pages in length and, although it's not a continuous narrative – in fact, it's 30 pages of, um, ficlets, snippets and drabbles – it's perfect to sink into for a lovely, long read. leiascully is yet another writer new to Sports Night writing; her writing is fluid, vivid and lovely, and her depiction of the characters fills them with living, breathing colour. This is her only SN fic to date, but I very much hope one day to see more from her.

And We Are All Together Part I

And We Are All Together Part II

Fandom: SPORTS NIGHT
Pairing: Casey/Dan
Author on LJ: quiesce
Author Website: N/A

Why this must be read: quiesce is another new – or new to Sports Night - author who, right from the word 'go' gets the boys, and all the nuances of their rocky, sometimes fractured, but constant and enduring relationship. In these four 250-word pieces she traces the path of Casey's crumbling marriage, and his resurrection in Dan, believably, skilfully and with not a word out of place.

... he recognized the face of someone whose world had just been suddenly and completely shattered. It used to be his face.

To Apathy, to Entropy, to Empathy, Ecstasy

Fandom: SPORTS NIGHT
Pairing: Casey/Dan (gen)
Author on LJ: laylee
Author Website: N/A

Why this must be read: laylee, like out_there, is one of the few surviving veterans of what I think of as the second wave of Sports Night fandom – when the show went abroad, and into syndication, and was found by a new audience. Again like out_there, her interests have diverged, and RL has taken up far more than its fair share of time; but every so often she comes back and writes a Sports Night fic, that only serves to make us miss the good old days the more.

This, in a welcome break from the jackass!Casey which is currently in vogue in the fandom, is a sweet, affectionate portrait of pure friendship, and a love that finds expression in small acts of kindness and in simply being. It also pays homage to That Thing Danny Does With His Mouth, and that's never a bad thing in my book.

Gen, but with - possibly only visible to my biased eyes - slash subtext.

Five Things Casey Does for Dan When he's Sad

Title: Dan & Casey Get Drunk in Vancouver by scrunchy
Pairing: Casey McCall, Dan Rydell; Jensen Ackles, Jared Padalecki (gen)
Author on LJ: scrunchy
Author Website: scrunchy.net

Why this must be read: Because Dan and Casey get drunk in a bar in Vancouver. With the actors from Supernatural. Because there's banter. And sports references. And who knew that Dan watched so much TV and/or was such a fanboy (and yet, when you think about it ... of course he does. And is)? And there is, at one point, Casey's hand on Danny's arse. Although, you know, he was drunk. And it was totally an accident. Yes.

Dan & Casey Get Drunk in Vancouver

Fandom: SPORTS NIGHT
Pairing: Casey/Dan
Author on LJ: minisn
Author Website: N/A

Why this must be read: minisn! minisn!! minisn!!!

I'm sorry, it's impossible to give a coherent overview. It's minisn, and all I can do is flail and squee. MiniDanny! MiniCasey! And they even have MiniSubtext!!

!!!

minisn: episode one

Fandom: SPORTS NIGHT
Pairing: Casey/Dan (A/U)
Author on LJ: out_there
Author Website: Amazed by the Mathematics

Why this must be read: Sports Night writers tend to be a short-lived and transient group; new writers come along all the time, but few of them stick around for long. Of the ones who were writing when I first got into the fandom, back in the halcyon days of 2003 – and that's a long time ago in fan years, which are like dog years in many ways – there are only a couple left. One of those is out_there who, back in those days, used to produce new fic on a regular basis, sometimes several times a week. Other fandoms have beckoned since then, and real life has intruded, but she still revisits the boys from time to time – and every time she does, she produces another gem.

This short piece is A/U: Casey and Dan are secret agents – or, er, something, it doesn't really matter. They wear long, leather coats and have guns, that's really the whole point of the exercise. Fandom has been crying out for spy-Danny-with-a-gun ever since we saw Josh Charles's publicity shots for SWAT, and, well – here he is!

As a bonus, there's a link in the author's comments to an earlier (PG-13ish) piece set in the same A/U.

To Accept the Bullet

Fandom: SPORTS NIGHT
Pairing: Casey/Dan subtext, Dan/Rebecca, Abby
Author on LJ: find_rightbrain
Author Website: None, but also at allfireburns

Why this must be read: the heart of Sports Night is Dan Rydell; the heart of Dan Rydell is a complex, extraordinary, wonderful thing. Again and again we try to fathom its mysteries, and each one of us finds something new, something different, something marvellous.

Here, find_rightbrain takes "four addictions Dan Rydell never had, and one he has", and makes every one of them real.

A side note: I would never have found this fic if I hadn't been bored, and doing a Google blog search for Sports Night fanfic. Which leads me to wonder – how much else is out there that's not being posted to the SN communities, and is going largely unmissed …?

Strong Chemistry

Fandom: SPORTS NIGHT
Pairing: Casey/Dan
Author on LJ: lordessrenegade
Author Website: cosmic debris

Why this must be read: last time I recced Sports Night for crack_van, I believe I referred to lordessrenegade as the Great White Hope of SN. Astonishingly, she's still speaking to me. Less astonishingly, she's continued to live up to that promise, producing a steady stream of quality fic – mostly drabbles or linked drabbles, or short fic, but some longer – on a semi-regular basis. Seeing a SN fic cut on her LJ never fails to lift my spirits, because I know that when I click on the link, I'll find something wonderful waiting for me underneath.

Like this: it has angst, it has porn; it has college-age Danny in jeans. It could have been written especially to my specifications. Actually, it sort-of was – lordessrenegade wrote it for my birthday. They do say that the best presents are made, not bought (though a pony would be nice, too), and this was a marvellous, and most unexpected present. One that I'm happy to share.

Just a Case of Mistaken Revelation

Fandom: SPORTS NIGHT
Pairing: None; Casey, Dan
Author on LJ: likethesun2
Author Website: Finishing the Hat

Why this must be read: all authors, to a greater or a lesser degree, are artists; likethesun2 is a craftsman: she constructs her work painstakingly, meticulously, honing and editing until every word is perfect. She writes in many fandoms, but has given us several wonderful SN fics this year, each of them a thing of beauty. This is the first one I read. Casey's marriage, and his world, are falling apart, but in the busy, busybody atmosphere of the SN workplace, he finds a moment's peace.

By the way? There is, apparently, a long SN WIP in, er, progress, and refusing to co-operate, rather. It's rude and mean to tease authors for fics that don't want to be written … but I do hope that one day this one will decide to play nicely. We badly need more of this sort of thing.

Truth Passed Around

Fandom: SPORTS NIGHT
Pairing: Casey/Dan UST
Author on LJ: catwalksalone
Author Website: First We Show Up – Then We See What Happens

Sports Night is back on the crack_van itinerary this month, after a brief, enforced pitstop caused more by voter apathy than by lack of material to be recced. New SN fic is still being posted on a regular basis – much of it by equally new, or new to the fandom, authors – and, with that in mind, that's what I'll be bringing to you: the best of Sports Night fic from 2006.

I'm beginning with one of the loveliest Sports Night fics I've ever read, written by one of our newest and, I'm happy to say, most prolific authors, catwalksalone.

Why this must be read: Because it's Dan, young and eager and elusive as the wind; it's Casey, yearning and clumsy, forever two steps behind. It's lyrical and tender, it's brimming with unspoken passion, and it's beautiful. I wish I had written it. But, since I didn't, I'm glad that catwalksalone did.

Up Where the Air is Clear

Fandom: SPORTS NIGHT
Pairing: Dana/Sally, Dana/Casey, Dana/Gordon, Sally/Casey, Sally/Gordon
Author on LJ: warlordkittens
Author Website: Winged Words, Fanfiction.net profile.
Why this must be read:

Did you read the pairing? Okay. It's a perfect, perfect, perfect insight into Dana. Also, it's kind of hot. In a yicky way. And I love the title.

Lastly, did you read the pairing?

Mercy As A Default Position

Feedback: Is easy--ff.n has a review tool even my puppy could use.

Hello! It's me, bj, again. Did you read the pairing? Yes? Good. My candy continues to be fearsome, as you can see.

Fandom: SPORTS NIGHT
Pairing: Dan/Casey
Author on LJ: shrift
Author Website: shift's fan fiction
Why this must be read:

You can pretty much guarantee that no matter what fandom Shrift's writing in, her characterisation, dialogue and plotting will be spot-on. This is particularly important when it comes to Sports Night, a character-driven show with dialogue that can make your head spin.

The other thing with Shrift's stories is that they're often laugh-out-loud funny and this one is no exception, with Dan getting his pants in a twist, Casey in full-on denial mode and Kim expounding on a woman's right to own quality porn. How can you go wrong?

Things to Get Arrested For in Singapore

Fandom: SPORTS NIGHT
Pairing: Dan/Casey
Author on LJ: out_there
Author Website: Amazed by the Mathematics
Why this must be read:

Weaving a story within a story, Annie crafts a sweet and gentle fairytale that takes back to a time of magic and dragons, Kings and Queens, Knights and Ladies, wicked witches and evil tyrants, all with a Sports Night theme. It ends happily ever after, as all good fairytales should, and in between it's as sweet as sweet can be.

Once Upon A time

Fandom: SPORTS NIGHT
Pairing: Dan/Casey friendship, Casey/Lisa
Author on LJ: merryish
Author Website: Any Road
Why this must be read:

We never really found out how Dan and Casey met. Was while they were in college? After they graduated? Or did they meet through work in that misty time before Lone Star Sports? Popular fanon is that they met while Dan is interning at a TV station where Casey is a cadet reporter, or some such. It a plausible explanation, and one that doesn't stretch the bounds of reality too much. But maybe they met a lot earlier than we think.

In this sweet, melancholy story, a young Dan Rydell, still smarting over the death of his brother and wanting to be left alone, escapes to college in Texas. Unable to face livening in a dorm where people will expect him to be social or something, he rents a room from a tall, dorky grad student called Casey. Friendship ensures, whether Dan wants it or not, and eventually he realises that letting people in isn't as scary as he thinks it is.

Kickoff

Fandom: SPORTS NIGHT
Pairing: Dan/Casey implied
Author on LJ: circusgirl
Author Website: Hotel Gypsy
Why this must be read:

Another rec from Sandy who asks, "What becomes of little boys?"

Stuck and an airport in Omaha, with Casey waiting patiently for him in New York, Dan wonders just that thing as he smokes a cigarette and tries not to think too much about the funeral he just attended. Once again sandy allows us a brief glimpse into the inner workings of Dan Rydell. He's often not altogether sure what life is all about, but he tries anyway and at least he has Casey to keep him grounded when things start flying out of control.

Groundless and Free

Title: Thospar
Pairing: McKay/Sheppard, Dan/Casey
Author on LJ: scrunchy
Author Website: scrunchy.net
Why this must be read:

I have a confession to make. Stargate: Atlantis? It just doesn't do it for me. I've tried, but it's pretty much leaving me cold. I'm happy with my current fandoms and quite content to just let SGA burble along without any help from me.

What I didn't count on was scrunchy sucking me in with this smart, funny crossover which sees Dan and Casey as deep space explorers who are stuck listening to a whiny scientist and his equally whiny friend bicker over the anniversary of them working together.

Sound familiar? It should. This is Thespis the way you never imagined it, only set in deep space and not a TV studio. You still have Natalie being cute and schmoopy about Jeremy, Jeremy doing his best not to let on that he thinks Natalie is the most beautiful thing in the universe, and of course out heroes; Dan and Casey doing what Dan and Casey do best. Bringing the banter like no one else while Sheppard and McKay argue like an old married couple.

Thospar

Fandom: SPORTS NIGHT
Pairing: Dan/Dana implied
Author on LJ: circusgirl
Author Website: Hotel Gypsy
Why this must be read:

One of the most frustrating things about reccing Sports Night is the fact that a lot of the really good fic that came out of the fandom's heyday about six years ago is trapped in the basement of the now defunct trickster website. I've got a whole bunch of fics saved to my hard drive that I cannot find anywhere online any more, and even the Wayback Machine is of little use when all I've got is an author and title and no URL.

This then leads me to my latest rec. I started out scouring the internet for a couple of fics that I know are posted to the yahoo group slashsn, but of little use to anyone who isn't a member. Having failed in that particular quest I moved on to another story that I've always loved, but was despairing of ever finding a link for. But fate does sometimes smile upon the weary internet trawler, and not only have I found the story I wanted to rec in the first place, I have also stumbled across an even better one by the same author, which I now present to you.

Danny, as always, does such good angst, and Sandy (who previously wrote as Jess) allows us a little glimpse inside his mind as he tries to make sense of what life has given him and the people he meets along the way. It's short and, well, melancholy, and a very wonderful read.

Beautiful Sorta

Fandom: Sports Night
Pairing: Dan/Casey
Author on LJ: phoebesmum
Author Website: N/A
Why this must be read:

You people are going to start thinking that Hilary is slipping me some cash under the table to rec her fic, but she really is so good that I can't help telling the rest of the world about her.

This sweet little piece was recently written for the picfor1000 challenge and is a gorgeous insight into Casey's past. We never learned a lot about Casey's childhood, side from the fact that his dad may have been rather stern, so fanfic writers have a lot of blanks in which to play with. In A Sweet Disorder, we are given a glimpse into why Casey is the way he is, as well as a perfectly wonderful solution to his often pedantic ways.

A Sweet Disorder

Fandom: SPORTS NIGHT
Pairing: Dan/Casey, Dan/Other
Author on LJ: phoebesmum
Author Website: NA
Why this must be read:

This one is pretty much an insta-rec because I think she only wrote it last night. But no one does Danny angst the way phoebesmum does, and the quiet, unassuming nature of this story beautifully illustrates just how much Dan keeps hidden beneath his charm and wit.

Please read and leave much feedback. It will make her day!

I Will Be With You Again

Hello, I'm Laylee, and I'll be your Sports Night driver for this month *g*

Fandom: SPORTS NIGHT
Pairing: Gen.
Author on LJ: I don't think she has one, but if anyone can clarify that, please do.
Author Website: Good Sports
Why this must be read:

It's ten minutes to air time at the Sports Night studio. Dana needs five minutes and nineteen seconds of news to plug a hole in the show, Dan finds a figure skater's DUI mishap highly amusing, Natalie is convinced no one can tell time, and Casey wonders why it's so hard to find a story when there are so many stories just waiting to be told.

Sary has a fantastic way with dialogue and she has suffused this story with the sort of madcap urgency that made Sports Night so wonderful. Her characterisation and plotting is so spot on it all most had to believe that this was her first ever story in the fandom!

Sixteen Random Acts

Fandom: SPORTS NIGHT
Pairing: Dan/OMC, Casey
Author on LJ: Unknown
Author Website: Unknown
Why this must be read:

This is my last rec for the month and it's a shift from my usual pattern. For the most part, the stories I've been choosing have been by new and/or underappreciated writers, or at least by writers who are current in Sports Night fandom. This, however, is an old fic – so old I had to Wayback for it – by well-known and much-recced authors from SN's first wave. The reason I've chosen it? It's perfectly simple. I like it, and that's good enough for me! (To be a little more specific: I have a peculiar, but very definite kink for Danny getting his heart broken by professional athletes and, of the little stash of fics I have that cater to this some may say rather odd whim, this is one of my favourites.)

Toska

Thanks for reading; I hope you've enjoyed my selections. There's plenty more out there to choose from, if you go looking. Go, look. Read, leave feedback, and remember to tip your waitress. (No, really, waitresses get lousy money.) And, if you're an SN fan, think about signing up for a month's worth of recs yourself – I've barely scratched the surface, and I'd hate to see the fandom fall by the wayside before its time.

Fandom: SPORTS NIGHT
Pairing: Casey/Dan
Author on LJ: lordessrenegade
Author Website: LordessRenegade's Fan Fiction
Why this must be read:

lordessrenegade is the Great [insert PC-sensitive adjective of choice] Hope of Sports Night fan writing. Her LJ only dates from August of this year, and she's already built up a body of work that would be the envy of, well, just about anyone. Certainly me. And she's signed up to write Dan/Casey for fanfic100, which means that, if all goes well, we have another 90-odd stories from her still to come. (Which will increase the canon almost 100%. And that, too, can only be a good thing.)

This, she tells us, is "… just a little ficlet I jotted down on the back of a kids' menu at work". Her jottings, as you will see, are equivalent to another person's several weeks' hard, concentrated, sweat-drenched labour. It's a short, poignant piece featuring a post-Sports Night Casey and Dan, who've both moved on, who have new lives and new responsibilities and yet are unable to give one another up; it's exquisitely crafted, perfectly characterised and utterly, utterly heartbreaking.

enough to make better people give up: Their past is in those silences, all the topics that are on the list of Things Dan And Casey Don’t Talk About. They never had to decide what was on that list, because they both knew in the beginning, right from the first morning.

Fandom: SPORTS NIGHT
Pairing: Casey/Dan
Author on LJ:celli
Author Website: Fanfic 101
Why this must be read:

celli is a busy woman with many fingers in many fannish pies. And, presumably, extremely sticky hands. Every once in a while she turns her considerable talents Sports Night-wards and, when she does, it more than makes up for the wait. (Although shorter waits would be nice, too. I'm just saying.)

There's snow on the ground today, and temperatures in minus figures – only tiny minus, I'm in England, but minus nevertheless; celli's fic takes place in a heatwave (and on Casey's very, very clean kitchen floor), but even if it were set in a blizzard it would still take one's mind off the weather, or anything else, for that matter: it's that hot. And Danny is wearing cut-off denims and nothing else, which is …

… I'm sorry, I'm sure I had something profound to say there, but lucidity has deserted me.

[Untitled]: Casey's smugness was cut off when Dan slid his hands back down into his shorts. He tried to say something else, but it was missing something. Like sentence structure. Or consonants.

Fandom: SPORTS NIGHT
Pairing: Dan, Casey
Author on LJ: allcanadiangirl
Author Website: and chimeras
Why this must be read:

Because Danny said, "My future is writing and anchoring a sports program with my partner, Casey McCall. Now, if it's here, it's here. If it's not, it's someplace else." But when it came to Casey's turn, Casey ... didn't. As bj demonstrates, in this brief, telling glimpse into Danny's angry, bitter, fucked-up head.

confessions of a former camp counselor Be there for him. The last six years solid, been there. And never, never a word - not thanks, not "if you need anything, Danny, seriously, just ask" (like he thought it was unspoken or something stupid like that - bullshit, horseshit; nothing should be unspoken, you don't trust that kind of blind assumption of, well, trust). Nothing.

Fandom: SPORTS NIGHT
Pairing: Casey/Dan
Author on LJ:mireille719
Author Website: Afternoons and Coffee Spoons
Why this must be read:

There are certain defining elements without which Sports Night would be just another television show: its intelligence, its humour, its compassion, its way with words … its two very very very hot male leads … The best of Sports Night fanfic reflects these qualities (and features the very very very hot male leads in scenarios to which network television simply doesn't pander). mireille719's writing is no exception and, in fact, may prove the rule. Mireille doesn't write much in this fandom; which only makes it all the more of a treat for us when she does.

And this fic? How could I not pick this, out of all of her writing, on this day of all days? Chinese Restaurants, Mistletoe and the Spanish Inquisition

Casey grinned, suddenly, and then said, "In case you were wondering, this is your Secret Santa present."
Dan laughed. "It's a lot better than socks."

Happy Christmas!

Fandom: SPORTS NIGHT
Pairing: Casey, Dan, pre-slash
Author on LJ:aprilmay430
Author Website: N/A
Why this must be read:

Part of what gives the Sports Night universe life is its backstory; sketchy and never fully glimpsed, it nonetheless informs the characters, fleshes them out and gives depth and meaning to their relationships. We know, for example, that Dan and Casey have known one another for ten years, working together for five, at the time of the show, but we have no idea how they met, what brought them together, why they became friends, or how their deep intimacy (and I don't just mean from a slash perspective. Well, not entirely) developed. I have an especial fondness for stories that look at the boys' lives outside the show, in particular at their early days – at the lost years that we, the viewer, never saw. This is another story that was originally posted to the old Yahoo SN list; aprilmay430's recently put it on to snarchive and given it a new lease of life. It takes us back to the days of Casey's marriage, and Lone Star Sports, and gives us a glimpse of a very young and insecure Danny, and a Casey who … well. Is well on the way to being the Casey of Sports Night.

Oversight: It occurred to him, with more than a little guilt, that he had been so caught up in the demands of his job and family that he hadn't even noticed how unhappy his best friend had become, and how the hell had he let that happen?

Throwing Waffles Through Hoops by victoria p.
Pairing: Remus Lupin/Dan Rydell
Author on LJ:musesfool
Author Website: Achromatic
Why this must be read:

Sports Night and Harry Potter isn't a crossover that would spring to most people's minds (although you know for sure that in the non-crossover world, Dan, at least, has read the books). Once someone's pointed it out, though, it becomes obvious that, yes, of course Jeremy's a wizard and yes, of course Isaac would have contacts in the wizarding world. And, if Dan and Remus Lupin ever met then yes, of course they would end up in bed together. Thanks to musesfool for bringing it to our attention!

Throwing Waffles Through Hoops

Fandom: SPORTS NIGHT
Pairing: Casey/Dan
Author on LJ:laylee
Author Website: N/A
Why this must be read:

laylee is one of the great unsung talents of Sports Night fandom; for the past couple of years she's been consistently turning out fic that's as good as anything else in the genre and better than most, and yet somehow her name seldom, if ever, appears on rec sites. Which only goes to prove, if there were any doubt, that life just ain't fair. Evening the Keel was first posted on the old Yahoo Sports Night board in 2003, before laylee had an LJ; I've been nagging at her for some time to re-post it where other people can see it, and a week or so ago she did just that. This was her first long Sports Night fic, and follows Danny and Casey out of Anthony's at the end of La Forza del Destino. Danny is a Rebecca-induced wreck; Casey, in spite of his own anxieties, is there for Dan to lean on. It's sweet, without being mushy (laylee did edit out what she referred to as 'a lot of schmoop' when she re-edited it for LJ, but in my opinion it was fine to begin with), a warm, affectionate portrait of the boys in harmony, and should be required reading for every Sports Night [slash] fan.

Evening the Keel

Fandom: SPORTS NIGHT
Pairing: None
Author on LJ:out_there
Author Website: Amazed by the Mathematics
Why this must be read:

No SN recs listing would be complete without at least one thing from Annie; it's deciding which one thing that's the problem. Annie, more than anyone, is responsible for the healthy state of Sports Night fanfic, even now, five years after we lost the show: she's one of our most prolific authors and (lucky us), also one of our best. This little series of seven connected drabbles (a response to a 'Deadly Sins' challenge at sn100) is a bit of a rarity in that it doesn't focus solely on Dan and Casey, dear to us as those boys are: each one is a snapshot of one of the supporting players, the people who helped give colour and depth and life to the show, but who are almost invariably overlooked when it comes to fan fiction. And every single one of them is perfect.

Everyday Sins

Fandom: SPORTS NIGHT
Pairing: Casey, Dan
Author on LJ:mosca
Author Website: homoneurotica
Why this must be read:

Because, like a lot of Sports Night fans, I am quite the fan of pretty, broken Danny. Because, like a lot of Sports Night fans, I sometimes forget that, of the two of them, Dan and Casey, it may well be Casey who's the most screwed up. At least Dan admits to it. Casey never will. Here we have just-post-divorce Casey, kept awake in the night by a problem that Lisa could have solved, and nothing to keep him company but some very strange sports and a friend who's afraid to touch. It's heartbreaking; but in a good way.

Better Go Catch It: